ISU Has Company: It’s a Win for College Basketball

The build up to tonight’s college basketball Sweet 16 match-up in NYC has been a good one. The celebrations and the drama of last weekend had pretty much taken everyone over, including some Hawkeye fans and those of us who may not have cared much for basketball in previous years.

While occasionally tuning in to Syracuse or St. Bonaventure during their tourney runs while growing up in upsate NY, I never put much attention towards NCAA basketball. That made an unexpected change though soon after making a move to the Midwest.

Big XII – ISU vs. UT (Photo credit: ChrisM70)

During 7 years of living in Iowa, there have been some break-out moments to take notice of. In 2008, there was plenty of local hype for the 28-5 season put together by Drake. In 2010, it was the Northern Iowa team that had its own big run. The Hawkeyes are not overlooked either, it was truly fun to watch both Iowa and ISU in the top 20 for most of this season. As my dad was kind of shocked to notice when he came to visit last month, College basketball has found its way to me.

Tonight it will be all about the Cyclones. It’s another time when one of our home teams gets to step into the spotlight and make the most of it. So far, so good. Let’s all watch where this one goes and see who else we can win over.

Same here — though I’ve always lived in the Midwest, Des Moines is the first place I’ve been where I’m surrounded by passionate college-sports fans (the rest of the time, it was fellow pro-sports fans). It’s contagious even without an alma mater in the fight!